


Pipe Dreams

by PepperCat



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Aromantic Character, Axel is possessive, Cuddling, Dreams and Nightmares, Friends With Benefits, Light Jealousy, M/M, Non-Explicit Sex, Sleepwalking, foreseeing the end of a relationship, in case that makes a difference, seeking reassurance, some things are better than dreams, the graphic violence is dreamed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 21:47:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8594953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PepperCat/pseuds/PepperCat
Summary: Sometimes Axel has nightmares, and doesn't want to go back to sleep alone.





	

**Author's Note:**

> (Set in the not-quite-AU with the premise that Jesse partners up with Damien Darhk and Axel ends up with the Rogues while waiting for him to come back.)

Axel has two dreams of Piper that keep coming back.

(Then there are the frenetic imaginings he wakes from wet and giddy, but those don't count. Those are daydreams that happen when he's sleeping. They're not _dreams_.)

In the first kind of dream, he can hear Piper's heart, and when he touches the skin over where it beats Piper unfolds like origami (the many-fingered arcs of his ribs opening like cupped hands parting to show a particularly bright jeweled beetle, the strap and lay of his muscles gliding gracefully back; like a book, breaking cleanly along lines that are _meant_ to open) and Axel can see his heart, a soft hot thing that burns summer-noon white. He can touch Piper's heart, then, and there's no hurt or harm done; only when he does Piper murmurs something against his mouth.

He can't hear the words. It doesn't matter. They taste like cedar and red wine.

The first dream is the best. It's why Axel never manages to make himself wake up, even if the second dream is horrible, because the first and the second dream start the same way.

The second kind of dream starts the same way, except when he touches Piper's skin it doesn't give way. But the heartbeat's under his fingers like a promise and he presses harder, tries to start digging towards it, and his nails break the skin and his fingers follow, working through new ragged channels in frayed flesh and slipping over bones until he can get a grip, pull them away with a wrenching crack and make a gap large enough to get his hands in--

Piper doesn't scream. It's not _that_ kind of dream. He just looks blankly at Axel while Axel's up to his elbows in welling blood, digging frantically through all the slipping liverish rags and trying to find Piper's heart. It should be there somewhere but everything's breaking apart under his fingers and no matter what he says Piper just keeps looking at him with that flat dead gaze, eyes empty as marbles and open and unblinking, and _no no no, I'm just trying to **reach** you_ \--

He wakes up from the second kind of dream and he's laughing, raw and high and scared. Most times it happens he's still in his room but this time he's giggled himself awake and found he's sleepwalked through the house. He's standing in the living room with the three a.m. sodium backsplash of the streetlight cutting an orange trapezoid into the room and the tarnished light is so hard he thinks he's going to be sick, but it shows his hands are clean. No blood. No blood.

Axel puts them against his mouth until he can stop laughing.

He understands it's a warning; be careful of Piper, or there'll be nothing left. Piper's fragile, or maybe _people_ are fragile; people aren't the kind of things it's easy to open up and get inside of, not that deep. You need to be something special to open them up, and Axel's not, he can't get inside the way he wants to.

He wonders sometimes if Jesse could do it. Axel knows Jesse can get inside people's heads, but Piper's very good at locking himself up, and he dislikes the idea of Jesse or is scared of him; Axel can't tell which it is.

Axel thinks Jesse could break Piper, but he's not sure Jesse could open him.

(And anyway, although it upsets him to even think this, Piper is _Axel's_. Not Jesse's. Not that Axel wouldn't give him up if Jesse asked, not that he wouldn't do _anything_ if Jesse asked, but... he'd regret it, miss having his delicately snarky rich boy with the shining poise and the blink-and-you'll-miss-it burn. He might even be jealous. Not as badly as he is of Jesse and Dark, and not in the same horrified way, but the idea of _someone else_ getting Piper to open up and burn like that...)

_Mine._

Axel wants a little reassurance on that, and cold and awake in the middle of the night, he goes back down the hall and scratches lightly at Piper's doorframe. It's the best way to wake him up; most people would be upset, but Piper just wakes up thinking one of his rats is making noise, and gets into a sort of friendly-concerned pet owner mood. It only lasts until he realizes that it's Axel, but even then, he's hardly ever _angry_.

"Coffee?" Axel hears him mutter blankly and then the door swings open and Piper looks up because of course Axel's taller than the rats, even Coffee, who's the biggest of the bunch and can easily stretch to knee-height when she tries. "Axel?"

"I can't sleep," which isn't exactly true, because the sleeping was working just fine _until_. But he doesn't want to go back to sleep alone, not even in his own bed, so it's close enough. And it's good to see Piper, even just the edges of him in the shadows; him being awake and alive clears some of the midging cloud of worry out of Axel's head.

"Really? I was managing." Piper looks grumpy, but still too asleep to really be angry. "What'd'you wan-- hey." It's a very soft _hey_ , still sleepy, as Axel steps closer.

"Can I sleep with you?"

"What, _now_?"

Axel runs his hand over Piper's forehead, brushing his hair back, and it helps to see that his hand's still clean. No blood, no blood at all, nothing under the glimmering crescents of his nails. "Please?" he says, smiling. Runs his fingers back through Piper's hair the way he knows Piper likes, feels the sleep-tousled strands brush through his fingers. "Please, Piper. I-- I had a bad dream."

"'s the middle of the night," Piper says, but it's sort of hazy. It doesn't sound like an _objection_ , exactly, and Axel nods.

"That's why I'm trying to get back to bed." See? A win all around. He puts one arm around Piper, leans forward and Piper smells good and for once he's actually warm, which he practically never is unless he's stolen all the blankets. "C'mon, Pipes. We don't have to do anything, I just really don't wanna be alone, okay?"

"Okay," Piper says, swallowing. "Okay, just sleeping, okay?"

"Sure."

* * *

In his defense, he didn't start it. Didn't start it alone.

They lie down face to face; Axel wants to see that Piper's eyes aren't open and staring dead. He has an arm over Piper's waist, because the bed's a small one, and he _asked_ before he did that and Piper said fine. And then Piper's breath was tickling his throat a little, and he was trying to ignore it, but when he shivers Piper make a questioning humming sound and reaches out to run his hand down the side of Axel's throat, warm and light.

Axel remembers _just sleeping_ and doesn't move. But Piper's so close, and it's not like a couple of things aren't kind of obvious even if Piper _couldn't_ pick up on his heartbeat, and Piper doesn't stop touching him; his arm, his shoulder, the sweep and hollow of his throat. And since Piper's the one who cared about nothing happening then if he's changed his mind (and Axel _has_ just-slept with him and Piper does not move his hands on Axel like that when he's trying to sleep) there's no reason _not_ to--

But he's trying. And Piper doesn't always pay attention when he's half asleep, so instead of pulling him closer Axel puts one hand over Piper's to stop it moving and his voice's a little rough but he says "you keep doing that, Pipes, neither of us are gonna sleep."

And Piper smiles in the dark, lazy and warm, and then he feels Piper's fingers flex under his hand, just enough to put the edge of nails in his skin. Piper knows what that does for him, same way Axel knows Piper likes having someone's hands in his hair. And he's saying "Promise?" like there's the slightest question about it and--

The salt taste of Piper's skin is better than cedar and red wine, real on his tongue. He hears his name over and over among all the low eager things Piper's saying, and when they shudder against each other in the dark Piper holds him close, fingers digging in. It'd be sweet even without the nails.

* * *

He does feel better after; the worry's gone, that funny anxious jitter in the back of his throat that wants to turn into a laugh. He feels sleepy and slow and warm, and he knows he's going to fall asleep soon even if he's not exactly tired.

Piper's dozing off with his spine all loose and easy instead of straight. Axel's the big spoon, and he's got his arm over Piper's waist again. The bed really _is_ smaller than Axel's, just a twin. Axel wonders about that sometimes, if Piper never considered the possibility of bringing someone into his bed, or imagined it wouldn't come up so he didn't need to plan for it, or just doesn't like anyone else sleeping in his bed most times.

He's never asked.

"Come with me?" he says, soft enough that Piper'll maybe tune him out even if he hears him. His heart's beating so fast.

"Did that." Piper's half-asleep. He _sounds_ half-asleep, all muzzy and warm.

"Right." Axel's hand is light on Piper's stomach; he mostly doesn't move, but strokes the skin with his thumb. Piper makes a sleepy kind of noise and cuddles back against him. "You good?"

"You're warm."

"I mean with Cold." He doesn't think Piper's breathing changes. "And... Boo and Lisa 'n' everyone."

Piper makes a questioning noise, then shrugs. "'s safe," he says. "People who'll help."

Axel nods. "I get you," he says. "Plus, Cold, right?"

Piper snickers sleepily. "Oh my god blue eyes." He reaches down to take Axel's hand and laces his fingers between Axel's, squeezes. "Every time my life goes where I didn't think, there's a guy with blue eyes," and Axel grins a little.

"I like you, Pipes." Not _like-that_ , but Piper knows that, and Axel feels like he sometimes needs to be reminded of being liked anyway.

"I know." Piper sighs. "Are you gonna be okay?"

Axel thinks about it a moment. He know's what'll happen when he gets Jesse back, gets back to Jesse. He'll leave with him, obviously, and Piper wouldn't come, and if Axel's being honest he wouldn't miss Piper when Jesse was around, he _wouldn't_. Not even a little bit. But it'd be different. Jesse's not really there to _interact_ with, not the way he can with Piper.

James Jesse, Axel understands, is for utter adoration.

Piper is for resting his book on the arm of the couch while he reads, so that Axel can use Piper's lap as a pillow while he watches a movie.

It'd be nice to have him there, for all the moments when Jesse has something more important to do and Axel's just waiting. But Piper won't come with him. He might trust the Rogues a little (or might just trust Cold or Lisa, Axel isn't sure), but he won't trust Jesse _at all_ , and he's too smart to get his mind changed on that...

"Axel?" So sleepy. And Axel knows he just meant now, tonight.

"Yeah, I'm good." It's mostly true, because he will fall asleep and he's not going to have another nightmare tonight, and it'd be mean to make Piper stay awake to listen to that explanation. He nudges the back of Piper's neck with his nose. "Thanks, Pipes."

Piper breathes out something that would probably be _You're welcome_ if he was awake.

Axel slides their hands up. He can feel the heartbeat under his palm, a warm steady thing, and Piper's fingers slack with sleep between his own. It's not like the dreams; he can't hear it, and he doesn't feel any desire to reach deeper. There's just the warm body in his arms, and the silent pulse against his skin, and the sound of their breathing.

He doesn't dream.


End file.
